Telecommunication services and, more particularly, mobile services, such as mobile telephone services are typically offered by service providers to consumers via subscription plans or via prepaid service plans. The prepaid service plan is typically very attractive to low income level consumers who may not otherwise be able to afford long-term subscription plans. Prepaid mobile service lets the mobile service user stay connected without any monthly contractual obligations therefore allowing more flexibility in terms of when the user uses the service.
When prepay or “pay as you go” mobile services were first introduced in Europe in 1995, Western European Cellular penetration was just below 6%. It has since climbed to above 74%. This is largely due to the enormous impact which “contract free”, “commitment free” prepaid mobile services have made to this growth. In fact, about 64% of all cellular users in Western Europe are now connected to mobile services via prepay plans. In addition, prepay plans are especially convenient for foreign travelers who desire mobile services while visiting a country outside of their own subscription service plan.
If mobile service providers desire to attract more low-income customers they must provide prepaid service in a cost efficient manner. This need is especially prevalent in third-world countries in which mobile communication is a developing new market, such as India, China and the like. In these markets, prepaid subscriptions dominate due to the overwhelming majority of the populace being low income. Thus, the service provider is challenged with providing service knowing that although the volume will be high, the average revenue per unit (ARPU) will be characteristically low.
Currently prepaid services are generally offered in the form of scratch card solutions. The scratch card is a laminated card that includes a card number that is revealed to the customer upon “scratching-off” a latex material that overlays the card number. However, this type of prepaid service has a high fixed cost per top up (i.e., a new card is typically required to replenish an account) and does not provide for sharing of the mobile terminal device (i.e., each mobile terminal is associated with one individual user). In addition, this type of prepaid service is specifically associated with a single mobile terminal and, therefore, does not readily provide for account balances to be transportable amongst different mobile terminals
Besides scratch cards, other forms of prepaid plans have been implemented to prepay for various goods and services. For example, secure, contact-less, smart cards or stored value cards have been used to purchase goods and services. Such cards are currently deployed in large volume in the commuter public transportation system environment, such as train, subways, and other forms of public rapid transit. In addition, such cards have been used by retail shopping entities as a form of gift certificates or gift cards. For example, he Philips Electronics of the Netherlands has introduced MIFARE® Interface Platform which provides electronic ticketing in public transport. Travelers just wave their card over a reader at the turnstiles or entry, benefiting from improved convenience and speed in the ticketing process. In another example, the Sony Corporation of Japan has developed the FeliCa system that implements contactless smart card technology. The smart card is difficult to forge/reconstruct, and allows data to be sent/received at high speed and with high security. The Sony system is also environment-friendly since the card can be used over-and-over virtually forever by rewriting the data. However, this type of prepaid smart card has not been readily adaptable to prepaid mobile communication service plans.
Recently prepaid smart cards for wireless telephone communication have been proposed. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,226, entitled, “Prepaid Smart Card in a GSM based Wireless Telephone Network and Method for Operating Prepaid Cards”, issued Jan. 22, 1999, in the name of inventor Martineau, which teaches an installing a prepaid Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in a mobile terminal. The prepaid SIM card includes a predefined amount of service access corresponding to a specific amount of monetary funds. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,327, entitled “Radio Mobile Terminal Provided With an Additional Reader of Chip Cards”, issued on Mar. 20, 2001, in the name of inventor Sentinelli, teaches an internal smart card reader slot, in addition to the conventional SIM card slot. The mobile terminal uses the smart card for accessing mobile network services. However, in these systems the need to install the card in the mobile terminal means that interchanging the cards is inefficient and requires either a degree of technical competency on behalf of the terminal user or the need for the smart card selling entity to install the card in the terminal.
When considering means to improve systems for prepaying for mobile services, it must be realized that many mobile terminals, for example mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like, are now being brought to market with Near Field Communication (NFC) and/or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) communication capacity. Such terminals are equipped with reader devices that allow the terminal to sense, capture and read NFC or RFID communication. By providing for such readers in mobile terminals it enhances their overall functionality and allows for read data to be automatically inputted into other applications executed on the device (i.e., capturing contact information and automatically transferring it to a telephone book application). Many mobile terminals are already equipped with digital cameras that provide the ability to capture images and, in some instances, are additionally equipped with applications that provide NFC functionality. With the use of mobile terminals becoming increasingly prominent in society, the machine-readable data reader functionality will allow all such device users to readily acquire and store all sorts of information from machine-readable data (i.e., codes, tags and the like).
Thus a need exists to develop systems, devices and corresponding methods that provide for an alternative means for providing prepay plans to mobile service communication users. The desired systems, devices and corresponding methods should leverage existing NFC and/or RFID reading capabilities in mobile terminals along with smart card technology. The desired systems, devices and method should provide for multiple users to share one mobile terminal by readily transferring a user's account balance from terminal to terminal. In this regard, the desired system will allow for multiple users, who may find it economically unfeasible to purchase or otherwise acquire a mobile terminal, to communicate by sharing mobile terminals. In addition, the desired systems, devices and methods should be able to provide for cost effective payment top up, even in instances in which the incremental increase in the debit account is miniscule. The desired systems, devices and methods should provide for ease and efficiency in user involvement and user account management.